Pakistan’s new government has initiated a process to abolish the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority, with the planning minister saying it was a “redundant organisation” that wasted resources and thwarted speedy implementation of the ambitious regional connectivity programme.
Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal passed orders to the concerned officials to begin the process of abolition of the authority following reports that Chinese power producers have shut down 1,980 megawatts of production capacity due to non-clearance of their Rs300 billion dues, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority established through an ordinance in 2019 was aimed at accelerating the pace of CPEC-related activities, finding new drivers of growth, unlocking the potential of interlinked production networks and global value chains through regional and global connectivity.
According to the newly appointed planning minister, his officials “will move a summary seeking Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s approval to abolish the CPEC Authority”.
Iqbal told the newspaper that the authority was a “redundant organisation with a huge waste of resources which has thwarted speedy implementation of the CPEC.
The decision to wind up the CPEC Authority was in line with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) old policy against the establishment of a parallel setup.
